We still haven’t picked a date for the cat; currently she’s curled up next to me, purring, while I drink a beer and surf the web and wait for Dave to get home. (Telethon day, so y’all know how fun THOSE days are for him…) It’s hard, it’s just the litterbox issue, and it’s just on the concrete in the basement, so Dave keeps cleaning it up and saying “we need to figure out when” but then not having the conversation. As much as *I* love FatKitty, he’s had her for 12 years, and she’s been his constant companion through everything, you know? He spared her 12 years ago — he and a girlfriend picked her out as a kitten, and when they broke up, the gf showed up at his door and said “you take the cat, or I put her to sleep” and that was 12 years ago — and he feels incredibly guilty that she’s really not in PAIN, but she isn’t continent, and that’s why he’s stalling. if she were in pain, or crisis, or peeing on the beds or something, it would be easier, I think, but it’s not. Anyway. We know our time with FK is limited, and we’re loving her up as best we can, and taking lots of pictures.
Lighter things:
Our dishwasher was recalled, so we bought a new one, and it was delivered yesterday. Tom is going to come over to help Dave install it, nice little barter situation, and I’m ridiculously excited to have an EnergyStar dishwasher with the deep-tiered top rack and a towerless wash system. Ours was 8 years old, and while I’m pretty sure ours wouldn’t have burst into flames, it was a good time to upgrade and conserve energy.
I also ordered Dave’s father’s day gift today. For a week or more, I’ve been putting together a Shutterfly photo book of all the photos of he and Ingrid I’ve taken and deemed printworthy (because I only print maybe 15% of what I take) and it ended up being 53 pages. I was feeling a little apprehensive about paying 50 bucks for the book, but it was 20% off, and I know he’d love it. Before I ordered, though, I clicked a link for some sweepstakes on shutterfly, figuring they already have my info, what the hell… and I didn’t win a camera, but I got a “consolation prize” code, and when I plugged it in, holy shit! Free photo book! Exactly like the one I’d toiled over, secretly, all week! It was a free 20 page one, so I still had to pay for the extra pages, but I still got the 20% off, and it made it less than half the price I was getting ready to pay. I heart Shutterfly. Plus, I can play every day! (And could’ve been playing for days already, dammit!)
Ingrid and I went to Target today, hung out around the house and played in the yard. She is becoming such a toddler — running away from me, which is totally comical… she’s crawling fast, but because she takes such tiny ‘steps’ forward when she crawls, it’s like watching someone running in place on fast forward or something. Great fun. She’s learning to throw, which is fun — she will get her block bucket, take each block and throw it, then go collect the blocks and put them back in the bucket and start over. Whatever works, honey. I’m also teaching her to “Raaaaar!” and hold up her hands to the question “What does a monster say?” and I’m getting about 20% success rate with that. She loves it when I do it, though, and often “What does a monster say” and a sequence of “Raaar!”s is sung to the tune of Iron Man. Note to self: teach cows and kitties next to keep under the radar of daycare.
It was threatening rain all afternoon, so we went to the mall, where Dave was telethoning. We actually got there in time for his last break, so he held Ingrid the whole time and was glad to see us (me, and his healthy, vibrant, alive daughter) and Ingrid had a grand time. It was the first time she was in her stroller inside! We’ve always used a sling or wrap, or in target/hannaford, a cart, and with our trip coming up, I thought I should see how the stroller was indoors, and it’s fine of course. Fit through narrow aisles, she was happy and content, and even when I had her in my arms (to see her daddy at the camera) and then had to zoom over to catch Dave, it was no problem to push the techno with my left hand and carry Ingrid in my right.
Our trip — we leave in ten days (gulp) at 5:45 am to go to St Louis for a conference. Ingrid and I (and several others from my job) will arrive at about 10am there, and my sister is flying in from Denver to nanny for the week, but she doesn’t arrive til 3. I’m going to be renting a car, and I’ve already figured out how to get to Target from our hotel. (Half tongue-in-cheek — I’m planning on picking up diapers, food, etc, when we get there instead of hauling it cross country.) I’m a touch nervous to be flying with Ingrid for the first time, but while I’ll be ‘alone,’ as in ‘no dave,’ most of the entourage from my school are moms, and while I’m not counting on their help, I’m sure I will get some if I need it. I’m planning on being self contained, but if I need to pee, for instance, I’m sure someone will hold on to MissIng while I do that. I’m excited to see Kate, and we have a suite which will be great for this trip — a fridge and such for ingrid’s food, a separate room so that Kate and I don’t have to be quiet all evening, etc. And there’s a pool, so I hope Ing and Kate get to splash around a bit.
And finally, for my birthday, my mom wants to get us some lawn furniture of some type. We have a weatherbeaten table and benches, that came with the house, that we’ve used, I think, never, so I’m thinking some sort of comfy seating is in order… any thoughts on what kind of lawn furniture you’d recommend? I’ll also confess to being a Total Mom — when my mom said “stuff for the yard,” my first thought was a climber and swing for Ingrid. I never understood what people meant when it came to wanting everything for your kid, but there you go.
